Ron Haffkine, a Grammy-winning record producer and manager known for his work with Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show, has died. He was 84.
Haffkine died Sunday at his home in Mexico after a brief bout with leukemia and kidney failure, his friend of 50 years, music executive Joel Diamond, told The Hollywood Reporter.
“Ron always had an uncanny knack of hearing a hit song in its rawest stage and the rare talent to couple it with the best musicians and then top it off with a meticulous performance by the artist,” Diamond noted.
Haffkine was instrumental in getting Dr. Hook signed by Clive Davis at Columbia Records in the 1970s, and the band led by Dennis Locorriere, George Cummings, the eyepatch-wearing Ray Sawyer and Billy Francis would compile a string of hits that included “Sylvia’s Mother,” “Cover of the Rolling Stone,” “Sharing the Night Together,” “When You’re in Love With a Beautiful Woman,...
Haffkine died Sunday at his home in Mexico after a brief bout with leukemia and kidney failure, his friend of 50 years, music executive Joel Diamond, told The Hollywood Reporter.
“Ron always had an uncanny knack of hearing a hit song in its rawest stage and the rare talent to couple it with the best musicians and then top it off with a meticulous performance by the artist,” Diamond noted.
Haffkine was instrumental in getting Dr. Hook signed by Clive Davis at Columbia Records in the 1970s, and the band led by Dennis Locorriere, George Cummings, the eyepatch-wearing Ray Sawyer and Billy Francis would compile a string of hits that included “Sylvia’s Mother,” “Cover of the Rolling Stone,” “Sharing the Night Together,” “When You’re in Love With a Beautiful Woman,...
- 10/6/2023
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Fifty years ago this week — on March 29, 1973, to be exact — the ragged New Jersey country-rock band Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show got their wish: Rolling Stone put them on the cover.
Written by Shel Silverstein, the former Playboy cartoonist and children’s book author, Dr. Hook’s hit “The Cover of ‘Rolling Stone’” featured eyepatch-wearing singer Ray Sawyer on lead vocals, singing lines about buying “five copies for my mother” of the magazine. The band’s actual cover appearance was a colorful caricature of Sawyer and two of his six bandmates,...
Written by Shel Silverstein, the former Playboy cartoonist and children’s book author, Dr. Hook’s hit “The Cover of ‘Rolling Stone’” featured eyepatch-wearing singer Ray Sawyer on lead vocals, singing lines about buying “five copies for my mother” of the magazine. The band’s actual cover appearance was a colorful caricature of Sawyer and two of his six bandmates,...
- 3/30/2023
- by Stephen L. Betts
- Rollingstone.com
While technically the entire month of April this year is 4/20, today marks the actual day that weed enthusiasts worldwide have come to claim as their own, with observances lighting up around the globe. Willie Nelson will host his “Come and Toke It” variety show at 4:20 p.m. Ct, featuring names like Matthew McConaughey, Jeff Bridges, and Kacey Musgraves, whose Golden Hour album is a prime get-high soundtrack.
But we also endorse the works of Shel Silverstein, the children’s author and Playboy cartoonist whose “I Got Stoned and I...
But we also endorse the works of Shel Silverstein, the children’s author and Playboy cartoonist whose “I Got Stoned and I...
- 4/20/2020
- by Stephen L. Betts
- Rollingstone.com
The core of the band known as Dr. Hook consisted of three men that had played together in another band before this one, and decided that they would strike up another band after moving to New Jersey. For about 17 years they managed to create something that people liked but that history doesn’t seem to remember quite as well since it’s not often that you hear about Dr. Hook. Still, they were a hit during their time and lasted from 1968 to 1985, cranking out hits that made them loved by the public until Ray Sawyer decided to entertain a
The Five Best Dr. Hook Songs of All-Time...
The Five Best Dr. Hook Songs of All-Time...
- 1/15/2019
- by Tom
- TVovermind.com
Ray Sawyer, the Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show member who sang the 1973 Shel Silverstein-penned hit “The Cover of ‘Rolling Stone,'” has died at the age of 81.
Page Six first reported Friday that Sawyer died in Daytona Beach, Florida following a brief illness; a representative for the band confirmed the singer’s death to Rolling Stone.
The Alabama-born Sawyer – who founded the group with Dennis Locorriere, Billy Francis and George Cummings – was a member of Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show from 1969 to 1981. A few years before the band’s formation,...
Page Six first reported Friday that Sawyer died in Daytona Beach, Florida following a brief illness; a representative for the band confirmed the singer’s death to Rolling Stone.
The Alabama-born Sawyer – who founded the group with Dennis Locorriere, Billy Francis and George Cummings – was a member of Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show from 1969 to 1981. A few years before the band’s formation,...
- 1/1/2019
- by Daniel Kreps
- Rollingstone.com
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